Hi! My name is Antonella, and my adventures on a bicycle began when I was just a young girl. In the countryside of the Valle d’Itria, I loved spending summer afternoons getting lost on my own along the roads around my home — no phone, no sense of time. My bike was a way to get to know myself better. I rarely saw other women or girls riding; at most, I saw a few male cyclists training with their teams. At that time, our area hadn’t yet become the international cycling destination it is today. Before I even got my driver’s license, my first independent rides were to secretly meet my boyfriend — feeling so grown-up and free on my bike.
Moving to Turin for my studies marked a turning point: I realised I could really use my bike for everything. When I started cycling for my daily trips — first to university, then to work — the city began to feel like mine truly.
After sixteen years, I decided to return to the South, to Puglia, and move to Bari. My biggest fear was: will I still be able to ride my bike in a city that seems so little bike-friendly? I bought a helmet and gathered my courage. It didn’t take long to realise that I still felt free and happy riding my pink two-wheeler — even in Bari. That’s when I thought: one lifetime won’t be enough to help make Bari a city truly designed for bicycles, where more and more people can integrate cycling into their daily lives.
After completing an acceleration program for European women entrepreneurs in Spain and the Tandem – Women in Cycling program promoted by EIT Urban Mobility and BYCS, I decided to found Terreno Cycling Therapy to cultivate healthy and human-centred ways of living through cycling.
What are your plans as Bicycle Mayor?
As an urban cyclist in Bari, I belong to a small minority. Being part of a minority means having to fight every day to have even the most basic rights recognised. I want to contribute so that more and more people can embrace an urban cyclist mindset — learning to empathise with those who move around by bike. To achieve this goal, together with the people I work with, we create opportunities for learning, reflection, and exchange. We work closely with the community to understand the barriers that stand between people and the choice of cycling for their daily mobility. Within the areas we can influence, we strive to reduce the perception of those limits. We aim to organise city-based cycling lessons, skill-building workshops, and information sessions about essential equipment, as well as visits to local cycling infrastructure and bike repair labs. We also want to host small cultural events — conversations with ordinary people and extraordinary stories, and film screenings that explore empowerment through cycling.
All this with a special focus on women, so that the bicycle can truly become a choice for everyone, regardless of gender.
I want to invest in creating a collaborative network in the city — one that brings together existing organisations, leverages their complementary strengths, and channels our shared energy toward a common goal: making cycling in our beautiful city safer, more widespread, more relaxed, and more enjoyable.
Join us